”It has become increasingly difficult for advertising technology companies to raise money in recent years, but funding for companies in the closely-related marketing technology sector appears to be as healthy as ever.

The wireless carrier has offered to install big brands’ apps on its subscribers’ home screens, potentially delivering millions of downloads, according to agency executives who have considered making such deals for their clients. But that reach would come at a cost: Verizon was seeking between $1 and $2 for each device affected, executives said.

“If we just have a fundamental disconnect on how ad sales works, that’s a pretty big deal,” said Ron Lamprecht, executive vice president of business development and digital distribution at NBCUniversal.A Facebook spokeswoman pointed to recent comments at an industry event from the company’s director of product, Fidji Simo, who said that over the next few months Facebook would experiment with “a lot of different models” and that “it’s probably going to take a bit of time.”

“This may draw more ad dollars into Facebook since Facebook can now promise advertisers that their ads will be seen by a highly targeted audience,” says Teddy Lynn, CCO at Ogilvy & Mather.

This also might repair Facebook’s tarnished reputation with media agencies and advertisers after the social network recently altered its News Feed and Instagram algorithms to prioritize user posts, which can reduce organic reach.

We won’t know for a while whether the shift toward subscriptions will save the media industry or doom it. Advertising makes it possible to have free news and entertainment, and that makes for a bigger number of users. It was a great deal for a while: Media company makes fun or informative stuff. The stuff attracts people. Advertisers pay to pitch products to the people drawn by media content. It was a good deal on all sides. Until it wasn’t, and everyone shifted to the subscription plan B route.

Merkle announced Monday that it’s sold a majority stake in its business to global media group Dentsu Aegis Network. The deal values Merkle’s business at $1.5 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the transaction. Merkle joins Dentsu Aegis’ nine existing global brands and will remain semi-autonomous after the deal, with longtime CEO David Williams remaining in charge.

Merkle employs more than 3,600 people in 21 offices worldwide serving 650 major clients such as Pandora and News Corp. The company provides data analytics and performance marketing for companies who want to advertise on platforms such as Google, for which it is one of the largest agency partners, and Facebook, for which it was one of the first to offer custom audience data. Profitable since just a couple years after Williams took over the company in a leveraged buyout for just $5 million in 1988, Merkle took in revenue of $436 million in 2015 on 14% growth.

Yesterday was a big day for advertising technology, with earnings reports from three of the top names, Rubicon Project (RUBI), Criteo (CRTO), and Rocket Fuel (FUEL).And the stocks are taking quite different directions following those reports:Rubicon is down $4.39, or 32%, at $9.28; Criteo is down $2.77, or 6%, at $40.39; and Rocket Fuel is up 11 cents, or 5%, at $2.34.

“It is the most difficult time I’ve ever had fundraising. In this environment there’s a lot of people who don’t believe any more, or have made bets that have lost in the past 5 years,” Mr. Mendez said.

But without much notice on Wall Street or beyond, Microsoft has turned into a quiet giant in digital advertising.Bing is on track to generate roughly $5.3 billion in revenue for Microsoft’s fiscal year ended June 30, based on the pace of sales during the previous nine months.